May 14, 2001 CURRENT RUMBLE Science Team Tansor! Cramerica 5.14.01 Diecast transforming vehicles, for earth, sea, and air! These are the only Italian toys that I have seen that rival Popy's for ingenuity of design. I am unfamiliar with the "Science Team Tansor" TV show these are from… perhaps one of our Italian friends could tell us? I am also unsure of the name or history of the toy company that made these ships. [Yappy sez: Well, I'm not Italian, but I'll try to help out... Kagaku Boukentai ("Science Adventure Team") Tanser 5 was the show's original Japanese title. Airing from 1979-80, it was the last of Tsubaraya Production's experiments in mixing animated characters with live backgrounds; slightly less obscure examples of this sub-genre are Born Free and Aizenborg. The Tanser 5 toys were actually manufactured by Tomy-- during one of their rare excursions onto the world of licensed sci-fi toys. Back to your regularly scheduled Rumble...] All three Tansor vehicles are built around a single gimmick: spring-loaded transformation. One touch of a button changes a rather non-descript road vehicle into its missile-laden "powered-up" form. Otherwise, all three designs are very different from one another. The Red Tansor SUV changes into the burrowing Land Tansor. The transformation is the simplest of the three vehicles. Pushing the button releases spring-loaded side panels, and also releases a rather powerful drill attachment, which pushes forward through the front bumper. Treads (non-operational) are revealed on the side panels and under the chassis. The Yellow Tansor van transforms into the Aqua Tansor hovercraft. The makers were a little too ambitious with this design, in my opinion. Here is the chain of events: The main button releases the cockpit, which pushes front of van down, which releases the sides, which release the top, which pops itself over into hover-fan mode. However, not all of the springs in my model are strong/new enough for this chain reaction to execute without some coaxing along the way. Also, the inside of the hovercraft is cheesy-looking, with multi-colored playmobil-style plastic components. What a way to beat the traffic! The Blue Tansor sportscar becomes the Sky Tansor plane. This one's transformation nails the right mixture of elegance and complexity. The button releases the wing enclosures and the nose, concurrently. The opening wing enclosures allow the wings themselves to sweep forward, and also flip the top of the car up to form a tail fin of sorts. This change is not quite as seamless as the Tiger Mask car's [see Cramerica's excellent entry in the World Collector Hall], but it is a near second, especially considering the Tansor spring-loaded all-at-once transform design. Avventura nella scienza!  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE